Exhibited in 1815 with the following lines, presumably from the Fallacies of Hope, but not attributed to them:
Then in stupendous horror grew
The red volcano to the view,
And shook in thunders of its own,
While the blaz’d hill in lightnings shone,
Scattering their arrows round.
As down its sides of liquid flame
The devastating cataract came,
With melting rocks, and crackling woods,
And mingled roar of boiling floods,
And roll'd along the ground!
As well as using a drawing made by an amateur on the spot Turner probably read the long account in the Gentleman's Magazine for October 1812. The explosion was a particularly violent one and could be heard over a hundred miles away, the Barbados Islands being covered with dust. See also No.B116. Volcanoes had been painted fairly frequently in the eighteenth century, among others by Wright of Derby, and would have had a special appeal to Turner although he did not see one until he went to Italy in 1819 (but see No.184).

The suitability of the subject for Turner was recognised by the Repository of the Arts for June 1815. ‘It appears that there is no record existing of a volcanic irruption on so mighty a scale as this of St. Vincent. Those who were on the ocean supposed the whole island was destroyed, and this opinion lasted for several days. To represent the grand phenomena of nature in painting, requires the powers of a mind like that of Mr. Turner, whose daring flights have often surprised the connoisseur. This wonderful effort of his pencil is said, by those who witnessed the effects of the eruption of the Souffrier mountains, to convey a faithful resemblance of the awful scene.’

The picture was engraved by Charles Turner but apparently never published, an inscription on a tinted copy in the British Museum suggesting that it was done privately for 'a gentleman who took it - copper-plate, impressions and all, abroad with him.’ The early history of the painting is not known.